New York wasted over $450 million on unused medical equipment during COVID, audit reveals
New York spent $453 million on medical equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic that went unused, a recent audit has found.
Under then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, the State of New York bought 247,343 medical devices, including CPAP/BiPAP machines, ventilators, oxygen tanks, pulse oximeters, oxygen concentrators, and infusion pumps. The state used just three devices, amounting to 0.000012% of the stockpile.
The $453 million purchase was done on the advice of the McKinsey Company, for which the state had paid a $5 million consulting fee. Rather than sell the unused devices to recoup taxpayer funds, the state has kept them languishing in storage for five years.
“New York state bought hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of medical equipment at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, including ventilators and x-ray machines, that now sits unused in storage facilities across the state, missing recommended maintenance and costing taxpayers storage expenses,” said New York Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
An exaggerated danger
The unused medical stockpile is the latest evidence to suggest the Cuomo administration exaggerated the danger of the virus. Even as he was claiming that hospitals were reportedly being “overrun”, Cuomo sent away the USHS Comfort, a hospital vessel sent by President Trump to assist with the excess hospitalizations. Cuomo said the need for it did not match projections. There were also thousands of available beds at the Jacob Javits Convention Center that went unused.
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi reacted to the audit by blaming McKinsey and claiming that Cuomo was “looking to save lives.”
“You can Monday-morning quarterback now, but then we were looking to save lives and doing nothing wasn’t an option,” Azzopardi told the New York Post.
But the public is not likely to accept Azzopardi’s “life-saving” narrative. Cuomo caused the deaths of tens of thousands of seniors when he knowingly ordered infected patients to be transferred to skilled nursing facilities. He then obscured the data to hide the deaths. Even after this, Cuomo used $5.1 million in taxpayer funds to publish a self-congratulatory book about his handling of the pandemic. By August 2021, he resigned in disgrace amid multiple sexual misconduct allegations.
